


Reconnect

by froggydarren



Category: Teen Wolf (TV) RPF
Genre: Banter, Dylan's Birthday, Getting Together, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-12
Updated: 2018-09-12
Packaged: 2019-07-11 10:26:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15970430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/froggydarren/pseuds/froggydarren
Summary: There are phone calls Dylan is expecting for his birthday. His parents, his sister, his friends, Posey, other former castmates. So when his phone rings, he doesn't bother looking at the screen.After all, it can't possibly be the one person he hasn't talked to since... well, sincehisbirthday almost a year ago.





	Reconnect

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kisha](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kisha/gifts).



> A little late gift for Kisha's graduation. (whoopsie about the delay).

Dylan's phone has been buzzing all day. Not that he's surprised, it's his birthday after all. He's made friends along the way, besides the people whom he's meeting soon, throwing him a party. His family is expecting him on Sunday for dinner and Jules already sent her presents and apologies that she can't make it across the country. But today is  _the day_  and everyone seems to want to at least say hi. That's why he doesn't notice the caller ID when the phone rings again as he's getting ready to leave for the party. 

"Yo," he says absent-mindedly, tugging on his jeans, the phone wedged between his shoulder and his ear. 

"Hey D," comes a quiet voice from the speaker and Dylan almost drops his phone.

He lets go of the jeans and reaches for the phone, then he sits down on his bed. He pulls the phone away from his ear and glances at the ID, confirming what he already knew from the voice on the other side. 

"Hoech." 

"Happy birthday," Tyler says because of course he does. 

"That's it?" Dylan bristles. "I don't hear from you for like a year and you just call now like nothing's changed?" 

He's not sure why he's snapping at Tyler like that, but the words are out before he can think about them. Dylan's not about to take them back though. Because it's been months since he's heard from Tyler when they used to talk almost daily before unless one of them was in the middle of a shoot. Even then, they would at least text on the busy days, whether it was a short hello or a complaint about the work or something funny or awesome that happened. In fact, the only time Dylan can remember them  _not_  talking for longer than a few days was right after his accident. He was still in the hospital and barely conscious then. 

"I'm sorry," Tyler says, sounding genuinely apologetic. "It's just been... weird. Now that the show's all done. I've been... I'm sorry, man." 

Dylan humphs into the phone and lies down on the bed, staring at the ceiling. He doesn't know what to say next—he's not ready to forgive Tyler for going incommunicado just yet and he's also aware that he hasn't tried to start up a conversation quite as much as he could have either—so for a moment, he just listens to Tyler's breathing on the other end of the line. 

"Look, I just... I wasn't going to let your birthday pass by without calling," Tyler says, breaking the silence after a while. "I'm sorry I haven't called before." 

"Thanks," Dylan replies, hesitantly. "For calling now, I mean." 

"So, how have you been?" 

_I missed you_ , Dylan thinks, but he doesn't say it out loud. They used to say it all the time, especially after Tyler left  _Teen Wolf_ , or whenever they didn't see each other for a while between filming times. 

"Same old. Unemployed." 

"How's Britt?" 

Dylan tenses. 

"She's... we're not..." 

He can't bring himself to say it, not yet. The break up is still fresh and he's not monumentally devastated, but she's been a part of his life for a long time, so it's not easy either. 

"I'm sorry," Tyler says. 

There's nothing more to add about that and Dylan cringes at the slightly uncomfortable silence that follows. He's not too keen on asking about Tyler's life—he's aware of the work stuff, but less so his personal life because Tyler keeps that close to his vest as much as Dylan himself usually does—but he doesn't want the call to end, not yet. 

"So, what's up with you? Any new things lined up?" 

He's asking something that he already knows the answer to, at least the things that are already public. He knows that Tyler's going back to the Superman suit, that he's got a movie in the works and another one close to being released. But he wants to hear it from Tyler, wants to pretend that he hasn't been following the news. 

"I'll be back in Vancouver with the DCTV crews soon," Tyler says and Dylan hums in acknowledgment. "Colton's with them full time now, so that should be a good one." 

"Are you guys going to work together'?" 

"I hope so. It's the crossover and I'll be working with the Arrow team too." 

"So you're on a pizza diet again? To fit into the costume?" 

Tyler chuckles and Dylan can easily imagine the blush on his face. He's always been a bit flustered whenever someone mentioned anything about his body, it's one of the reasons why Dylan and some other people from the  _Teen Wolf_  cast liked to wind him up about it. Dylan has vivid memories of how the group chat—the one that's gone really quiet since the show wrapped—exploded after the first photos of Tyler in spandex came out. 

"Kind of. I have another movie coming up that I needed to work out for," Tyler says. "It's a rom-com."

"You gonna be the handsome lead? Stealing hearts everywhere?" 

"Oh shut up," Tyler says and Dylan is now absolutely sure that Tyler's blushing. 

It makes him wish that this was a FaceTime call so he could  _see_ , but he's not about to ask Tyler to switch from the regular call. 

"So, anyway, it's going to be busy," Tyler says. "Promo for  _Bigger_ , filming."

"Is this your way of telling me that I'm not going to hear from you for months again?" 

Dylan asks lightly, but there's a pang in his chest as he realizes that might indeed happen. He gets it, he does, they get busy. It's not like he's been the best at keeping in touch in the past, but he does miss talking to Hoech, not that he'd admit it to anyone but himself. 

Tyler hums and Dylan again wishes he could  _see_  him. 

"Are you nodding right now?" 

"No. I was shaking my head. I don't want to go this long without talking, not again," Tyler tells him quickly. "I'm sorry that it's taken me so long to call."

"To be fair, I haven't tried either," Dylan admits. "It's just been... weird. To call anyone when I knew we would not be meeting on set anytime soon."

"It  _is_  weird, right? Even after I left, it didn't feel final."

"Well, to be fair, you did come back," Dylan says and chuckles. 

"I didn't know that would happen. I actively tried to stop it from happening."

"And then Colton happened."

"Yep." 

They both go silent again. Dylan isn't sure what else there is to say. It's not like he has that much to share—his schedule is mostly empty, a fact that he tends to joke about but that stings a little anyway—but he doesn't want the call to end yet. 

"Hey, I'm going to have a little free time before I go to film," Tyler says after a while. "You think we could swing dinner?"

That gives Dylan pause. For all the amount of time that they spent hanging out in the past, it was rarely only them. There would be others—Posey, Ian, Colton—and most of the time it was work-related or at least adjacent, like the times when they'd be hidden away in either his or Tyler's trailer on set. 

"Are you asking me out, Hoech?" 

For once, when the question is out, Dylan is glad that he's not on camera because he can feel his cheeks burning. It's a question he can turn into a joke if necessary, but he meant it. No one besides Julia knows this, but he's been holding on to a crush on Tyler for  _years_. No one besides Julia knows that his sexuality isn't as plain and simple as the world at large things either. 

"You that desperate for one? I'd think you have people lined up from Hollywood to New York," Tyler says, his voice filled with amusement. 

"I don't really pay attention to that," Dylan says with complete honesty. 

He doesn't. The break up with Britt wasn't complicated but he hasn't been in the mood to start looking either. Not for new people at least. But someone whom he's been crushing on for a long time—before he even met Britt—that would be a whole different situation. 

Not that he thinks that Tyler is anything but utterly straight though. 

"Well, I do have a different birthday gift for you," Tyler says, "but if a dinner would make you happy, I can make that happen."

Dylan takes a moment to process the thought. 

"Seriously?' 

"Yeah." 

"You'd take me out for dinner," Dylan says, still trying to figure out if this is really happening.

"Dinner, movie," Tyler says. "Do you prefer flowers or chocolate?"

"Are you making fun of me?" 

"Well, that depends."

"On what?" Dylan asks, curious and wary of what Tyler's going to say.

"Were you serious about the date thing?" 

Dylan pauses and takes a deep breath. Then he figures that there's little he has to lose. In the worst case, he and Tyler will just go back to finding excuses for why they're not talking. It's not like they're going to have to work with each other again, or do interviews. 

"Yeah," he says. "Yeah, I was."

"I didn't think... aren't you...?"

"Straight? Not so much," Dylan says. 

This isn't how he wanted to come out to anyone, let alone to Hoech. But it's done now and he's not taking it back. 

"Oh."

There's another silence on the line and Dylan waits, his shoulders tense. 

"Me either," Tyler says eventually, with hesitation. "I've never actually told anyone."

“I didn’t either. Julia knows. And now you." 

"I think Colton might know. About me, I mean.“

"I bet he does. And if he doesn't, he'll say he did anyway," Dylan says and chuckles. 

"So, uh, date?" 

They've never been awkward around each other, with the exception of the first meeting when Dylan discovered Tyler's connections to the Mets. After that, it was all smooth sailing, no embarrassment or strangeness. Until now. Because  _now_  feels like it's different; like they're not the same people. Like something is monumentally changing between them. 

"Yeah.  _Yeah_ ," Dylan says, fingers clutching his phone. "I mean, if you really want to, I'm absolutely on board." 

"I've wanted to for a while now, I just didn't think it could happen," Tyler tells him. 

Again, Dylan thinks about how this would maybe be easier if they were talking face to face, even if only through phone screens. 

"Hey, do you wanna switch to video? I just, this is weird, only hearing your voice,” he says. "It's cool if you can't or don't want to though, I just kind of wanna see your face." 

"This ugly mug?" Tyler asks, chuckling. "But yeah, I'll call you back in a sec," he adds and then there's silence on the line, the call disconnected. 

Dylan doesn't have a chance to overthink—the screen hasn't even gone dark yet before the incoming video call shows up on it. He answers automatically, grinning at the photo of Tyler that he's set up on every phone ever since they met. It's an old one, from Tyler's  _Seventh Heaven_  days and it was a joke at first but by now Dylan's grown fond of it. 

"Hey," he says when the call connects and Tyler's face shows up on the screen. 

He has to catch his breath a little but does his best not to let it show. It has been a long time—the longest since the day they met—since he's seen Hoech and it's like his brain is getting used to his face again. 

"Hey. So, happy birthday," Tyler says and smiles, making Dylan's heart skip a little. 

"Thank you," he replies, trying for cool and nonchalant. "So, it's good to see your face again." 

Tyler ducks his head and smiles, then he looks into the camera again and there's something in his eyes that Dylan can't quite read.

"I'm sorry again that it's been so long. I wasn't sure..." Tyler says and pauses, looks down and then back up again. "I didn't know if you'd want to leave all of the show behind, move on."

"The show? Yeah," Dylan says immediately. "The people, not so much." 

"So you still hang out with Posey?" 

"About as much as you do with the terrible two," Dylan tells Tyler, referring to JR and Ian. 

That earns him another smile and a laugh from Tyler, both of them all too aware of how much trouble Ian and JR can be, especially when they're together.  If he's completely honest, they all can be trouble when they're left unsupervised for too long, not that it happens all that much anymore. 

The thought makes him frown again, because, well,  _Hoechlin_. 

"Hey, what's wrong?" Tyler asks immediately. 

"Just thinking about how we don't get to see each other enough," Dylan admits, opting for honesty instead of shrugging it off. "I mean, I get that it was work, but man, I miss you. All of you," he adds the last part hastily and with less emotion than the words before. 

He needs to remind himself that he already told Hoech he's interested. That he has no reason to play the "just friends" card, not now, not with him. 

"I missed you too," Tyler says. 

Dylan watches him duck his head and smile sheepishly, which reminds him of a thing he saw online once. When he chuckles, Tyler looks up and frowns in confusion. 

"Oh, it's just something I read a while ago," Dylan says, feeling his cheeks heat up. "When you do that sheepish innocent kind of thing with your head..." 

Tyler waits him out and raises an eyebrow to urge him to continue. 

"There was a Derek post on tumblr," Dylan tells him and ignores Tyler's eyeroll. "That referred to that particular expression, the ducked head and that smile, as--" he takes a deep breath before he just blurts it out, "--as your  _I'm thinking of letting you bone me_  look." 

He does  _not_  revel in the way Tyler chokes on air. Not at all. He does laugh at his expression that turns from confused and curious to embarrassed and scandalized. 

"Why were you on there anyway?' Tyler asks a moment later when he's schooled his face into something more neutral again. 

Dylan shrugs. "I was bored. There were things. It came up as recommended on my dashboard." 

"Wait, you actually have an account?" 

"Duh." 

" _Why_?" 

"Because I can? I don't know man, I don't actually blog or anything, just occasionally go looking at what's going on, so I know what to brace myself for," Dylan says. "You know, it's Colton's fault."

"That doesn't surprise me," Tyler says with a sigh. "But how?"

"Remember when he used to be on there all the time and sent us links of the porn things?" 

Tyler visibly shudders at the memory and nods. 

"Well, I followed one of those links once and it wanted me to log in. Something about age restrictions. So I made an account," Dylan explains. "It's not somewhere I'd want to be active on, especially not officially. But there are interesting things sometimes."

"Like porn?" 

"Nah man, I get that from better sources," Dylan tells him, grinning. "I can show you if you're interested."

"Not so much, no," Tyler replies. "Unless..." 

"Yeah?" 

"Have you  _seen_  yourself? If it’s porn that features you…“ 

Dylan blushes and shrugs. He's never seen himself as particularly attractive, but he isn't impervious to the way others see him. There's something about hearing it from Hoech of all people though. 

"And on that note," he says instead, bringing back the topic that seems most important, "when are you on this side of the country?" 

"I don't put out on a first date," Tyler tells him and chuckles. "Just thought I'd make that clear," he adds when Dylan narrows his eyes. "Also, I'm here now, but only for a few days." 

"You gonna be away for long?"

"A while, yeah. Don't you have shit to film too?" 

"Not as much as you, apparently," Dylan says. "Don't say you're sorry," he tells Tyler when he sees him opening his mouth. "I'm stoked for you. Especially about the Superman thing." 

"Is it because of the spandex?" Tyler asks, smirking. 

"Might need to fly up and test if I can bounce quarters of that bubble behind." 

"They don't let me leave set with it," Tyler tells him and Dylan pouts. "And I think you showing up there would be a little too scandalous." 

"But if I showed up elsewhere in Vancouver?"

Tyler's smile brightens in ways that Dylan hasn't seen in a long time. He smiles back and that's all that he needs to know right then. 

"Look, I've gotta head out, there's a party thing," he says. "But we'll text, yeah?" 

"Yeah. And hey, happy birthday, again," Tyler says. 

Dylan grins and only hesitantly disconnects the call after a quick goodbye.  He's not even out of the door when his phone buzzes with a message. 

_I'll see you soon. T. x_

**It's a date.**  Dylan texts back and heads out, grinning all the way to his party. 

**Author's Note:**

>  
> 
> [my tumblr](http://froggydarren.tumblr.com/)  
> 


End file.
